Howe Coal Company v. Prairie Coal Company

362 F. Supp. 1117, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12138
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Arkansas
DecidedAugust 27, 1973
DocketFS-72-C-74
StatusPublished

This text of 362 F. Supp. 1117 (Howe Coal Company v. Prairie Coal Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Howe Coal Company v. Prairie Coal Company, 362 F. Supp. 1117, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12138 (W.D. Ark. 1973).

Opinion

STATEMENT

JOHN E. MILLER, Senior District Judge.

It is necessary to a clear understanding of the controlling and material facts in this case that the pleadings filed and the action taken by the court be stated chronologically.

On November 20, 1972, Howe Coal Company' (Howe), a Missouri corporation, filed its complaint against Prairie Coal Company (Prairie), an Arkansas corporation, in which it alleged that on or about April 26, 1972, defendant purchased from plaintiff certain machinery and equipment specifically described in Exhibit A to the complaint for the sum of $176,420.22. The machinery and equipment were delivered to the defendant during the last part of May and the first part of June 1972. Plaintiff demanded payment and defendant failed and refused to pay. Summons was issued in due form on the complaint and served on November 24, 1972, on Earl A. Bell, an officer of Prairie, and also the agent for service of process.

On January 5, 1973, Prairie filed answer in which it specifically denied that it had purchased the property as alleged in the complaint.

On January 16, 1973, plaintiff filed its petition for preliminary injunction to enjoin and restrain the defendant from selling, mortgaging or in anywise dis *1119 posing of or removing the property listed in Exhibit A to the complaint.

On January 23, 1973, the court entered an order restraining Howe and Prairie, its officers, servants, agents and employees, pending a hearing on the merits or until the further orders of the court from selling, mortgaging, or disposing of in any manner any of the property involved herein.

On January 26, 1973, plaintiff filed an amended complaint against Prairie and against Gordon-Miles Mining Company, a Minnesota corporation, of which Earl A. Bell was the agent for service in Arkansas, in which plaintiff prayed for joint and several judgment against Prairie and Gordon-Miles, and in the alternative for an order directing the defendants to immediately deliver possession to the plaintiff of all machinery and equipment listed in Exhibit A to the original complaint.

Summons in due form was issued and served upon Earl A. Bell, agent for service of Gordon-Miles on January 31, 1973.

On February 23, 1973, Prairie and Gordon-Miles filed answers to the amended complaint and denied that a sale was ever consummated as alleged in the original and amended complaint, and said defendants prayed that the suit be dismissed. The defendants filed a demand for jury trial but the demand was withdrawn, and the case proceeded to a trial to the court.

On May 11, 1973, the case was tried upon the issues made by the pleadings then on file. At the conclusion of the trial the court found that no sale occurred or took place between the plaintiff and Prairie and Gordon-Miles, or either of them, and that title and ownership of the machinery and equipment was vested in plaintiff. Upon that finding, the court adjudged that defendants Prairie and Gordon-Miles were wrongfully withholding possession of said equipment and that plaintiff was entitled to immediate possession of said equipment, and Prairie and Gordon-Miles were enjoined and restrained from selling, mortgaging or using or disposing of any of the equipment, and from in any way interfering with the removal of said property by plaintiff.

Following the entry of the above May 11, 1973, judgment, the plaintiff Howe dispatched trucks to the mine of Prairie near Clarksville, Arkansas, with instructions to the drivers to obtain and return the mining equipment to plaintiff’s place of business in Heavener, Oklahoma. They were able to obtain a portion of the equipment, but found that the employees of the defendants, either Prairie or Gordon-Miles, or both, had placed some of the equipment in the mine a short time after it was delivered during the latter part of May and the first of June 1972. The employees of the additional defendant Ozark Real Estate Company refused to allow the employees of Howe to enter the mine and remove the property that had been placed therein on the ground that the equipment had become real property and the title vested in Ozark. When faced with this situation, the drivers of the trucks returned to Heavener, Oklahoma, without the equipment that had been placed in the mine.

Pleadings Filed by the Parties Subsequent to May 11, 1973

On June 14, 1973, the court, upon motion of plaintiff, entered an order authorizing the plaintiff to make additional parties defendants for the purpose of determining whether the additional defendants should be enjoined and restrained from interfering with the plaintiff’s action in obtaining possession of the equipment that had been placed in the mine, and for any damages which plaintiff may sustain due to any wrongful acts on the part of the additional defendants. The petition for injunction was filed the same day.

On July 3, 1973, the additional defendants, Sterlin Hurley, Bobby G. Emery, Earl A. Bell and Ozark Real Estate Company (Ozark), filed their answer to the petition for injunction and damages and a counterclaim against Howe. In *1120 the counterclaim they alleged that Ozark had “enjoyed a lessor-lessee relationship with the Prairie Coal Company on lands owned by the Ozark Real Estate Company and leased to the Prairie Coal Company in Johnson County, Arkansas.”

In paragraph 3 of the counterclaim it was alleged:

“(3) During the year 1972, the Prairie Coal Company purchased from the Howe Coal Company, certain mining equipment which equipment was installed in mines existent on the premises owned by Ozark Real Estate Company and leased to Prairie Coal Company. By virtue of the installation, such equipment became attached to, affixed to, and a part of the real estate owned by Ozark Real Estate Company.”

It was further alleged:

“(5) Howe Coal Company, under a spurious judgment fraudulently obtained through a stipulation with Gordon-Miles Mining Company, seeks to remove from the premises of Ozark Real Estate Company, the fixtures described above. The said property has become affixed to and a part of the real estate and is not subject to removal and the attempts by Howe Coal Company to attach, remove or otherwise deal with property which has become affixed to, and a part of the real estate owned by the Ozark Real Estate Company constitutes a slander to the title of Ozark Real Estate Company in and to its real estate.
* “(6) The fraud practiced by Gordon-Miles Mining Company and Howe Coal Company upon this Court in the obtaining of the judgment in the above styled and captioned case consisted of knowingly and wilfully falsely representing:
“(a) That Howe Coal Company had not sold Machinery to Prairie Coal Company;
“(b) That Gordon-Miles Mining Company had the valid right to cause Prairie Coal Company to enter into a stipulation; .
“(c) That Miles Kernaghan was a proper officer of Prairie Coal Company;
“(d) That none of the equipment sought to be obtained had been affixed to or made a part of the lands of Ozark Real Estate Company.

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Bluebook (online)
362 F. Supp. 1117, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howe-coal-company-v-prairie-coal-company-arwd-1973.